The US president said his US military mission in Afghanistan would end on August 31 and that he was unwilling to send another generation of Americans to fight in the country.
US President Joe Biden announced Thursday night that the mission of US troops from Afghanistan will end on August 31 (September 9).
“The US military has done its job in Afghanistan effectively,” Biden said in a speech: “Military commanders have advised me to leave Afghanistan immediately.”
He also defended the 20-year occupation of Afghanistan, saying: “We killed [Osama] bin Laden and prevented Afghanistan from becoming a platform to attack the United States.”
Biden added that the Afghan people have a right and a responsibility to decide on the future of their country and how to govern it, and that the United States continues to send humanitarian and civilian aid to Afghanistan.
Referring to the killing of 2,448 American soldiers and the wounding of 20,772 other troops, the US president added that the presence of more US troops would increase casualties among them.
Biden said: “I am not going to send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan without a reasonable expectation of achieving different goals.”
He continued: Arrangements will be made for translators and Afghans who assisted with the US Mission in Afghanistan, and they can obtain US visas.
“No, it is not,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question about whether the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan was inevitable.
The US president added that the Afghan security forces were well equipped and trained to resist the Taliban advance.
Asked if the 20-year US military presence in Afghanistan was worth it, he said: “You know my background. I was strongly opposed to the deployment of US troops in Afghanistan.”
Although the US government had previously announced 9/11 to complete the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, US media reported that about 90 percent of US troops had left the country so far.
In addition, Paltico quoted two US officials as saying that the process of withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan was “practically complete”.
White House spokeswoman Jennifer Saki said Thursday morning: “The president will meet with his national security team on Thursday morning (local time) to receive a periodic report on the progress of our troop reductions in Afghanistan.”
Coinciding with speculation about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the British Prime Minister informed members of the British Parliament that the British occupation presence in Afghanistan had ended after 20 years.
The withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan has been welcomed by the Taliban, as Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid recently said in response to the news of the withdrawal of US troops from Bagram: “The Taliban supports the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Bagram.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif, today (Thursday), speaking at the final session of the inter-Afghan dialogue in Tehran, said: “Courage in peace is more important than courage in war, because for peace one must sacrifice and forgive, and ignore the maximum demands and pay attention to the demands of the other side, especially in these talks where there is no other side and both sides are brothers and they are seeking peace and tranquility for the people of Afghanistan.”